No one can deny Maxtrax are a good product, but $500 is too rich for me especially seeing they are double the price of the previous model.
Mine are 4 years old and still going strong.
I agree Beachman, the standard Maxtrax are a great unit - and we'll continue to sell them. They're not going anywhere.
These Maxtrax Xtremes are for the guys who have perhaps destroyed a set or two of the previous units, or who like the idea that their recovery options are more flexible. Wheel spin on the originals does quickly ruin them, where as these ones are more tolerant to that, and repairable too.
So I think for those who own a set, not many will turf their old ones, not at least until they fail. But for those who dont own yet, they might consider grabbing these so that they have more recovery options & for the extra durability.
Afterall, if you do burn the knobs off half way through a trip with your current Maxtrax, you cant replace them till you get to civilisation again.